Nansen said: “The path does not belong to the perception world, neither does it belong to the nonperception world. Cognition is a delusion and noncognition is senseless. If you want to reach the true path beyond doubt, place yourself in the same freedom as sky. You name it neither good nor not-good.”

At these words Joshu was enlightened.

Mumon’s comment: Nansen could melt Joshu’s frozen doubts at once when Joshu asked his questions. I doubt though if Joshu reached the point that Nansen did. He needed thirty more years of study.

This morning, in the predawn, I have been outside to smoke, as is my custom. In the predawn light I could see our latest visitor not more than a few feet from me. It was a baby bunny hopping about quietly, calmly and unconcerned by me. I could not assimilate his whole shape, but his fluffy white tail caught the eye. I knew which end was which. I am a little concerned for him as daylight dawns. But maybe he has a good strategy, being so close to the house might offer him some protection. In the twilight between wake and sleep, many of us drift and to some this is very nice. We may not be sure what is the dreamer and what is the dreamed.

That which speaks to each of us varies and that may be due to our upbringing, its attendant prejudices and our own predilection. In the video previous there is talk of THE spirit dreaming the world into being. In the Toltec tradition this is called Nagal. As the stages of the dreaming progress the Nagal divides itself into the dreamers like the barramundi and the dream goes on. The dreamers dream in the rest of the manifested universe. In a human sense we have spirit, soul and physical plane being; the nagal, the dreamer and the dreamed. The dreamer pretty much corresponds to the idea of the soul. It is the real you, not the social being full of angsts. Thus, to listen to the dreams of your dreamer is to dream true to you own soul. To me this sounds good, it has a lovely feel to it and it speaks to me. Learning to dream true is to become a fully ensouled being in which you are en rapport with your soul. I don’t know about you but as a goal, this isn’t so bad. Learning to dream true is a part of the way to freedom and liberation. In a sense this means giving over the dreamed to the dreamer. One could say hand over the steering wheel of your car, your vehicle, to your soul. If the dreamed is a bit of a control freak it will be more than a little prone to back seat driving.

At this the twilight between night and day, I offer this up.

Learn to dream true, so that the dreams of the dreamer are made real, hence to climb the “ladder” up to the spirit.

So that in time the nagal, the dreamer and the dreamed can be as one and at one.

“Presumably, as a martial artist, I do not fight for gain or loss, am not concerned with strength or weakness, and neither advance a step nor retreat a step. The enemy does not see me. I do not see the enemy. Penetrating to a place where heaven and earth have not yet divided, where Ying and Yang have not yet arrived. I quickly and necessarily gain effect.”

This kind of clip brings back happy memories of chasing around Tokyo martial arts shops in search of rare martial arts films for Finn sensei. They were all very helpful to the strange creature, who whilst in the midst of a business trip, tipped up at their door.

The noise inherent in our corporeal observational instrument is determined by a number of factors, primary amongst these is our internal dialogue and our biases. The more internal dialogue we have the more synapse firing occurs, all the time, we have a high dark current. If we cool our minds down by developing our mindfulness and heading towards a zen state, there is less dark current, which means that we can observe things better and with enhanced dynamic range. Most minds are “hot”, always firing. Indeed, there is a saying hot-headed. Hot-headed people do not think clearly.

The way the brain-current flows is dependent upon the applied bias. Things start firing at lower temperature when there is a bias, if something confirms our bias we get all excited.

A really quiet mind could be metaphorically at liquid Helium temperatures ~4K. That is not really practical, we could however have our own Peltier cooler, which we can switch on as and when. It is called meditation, the practise of which cools the mind and reduces the dark current. If we can’t turn off our corporeal observational instrument, then we do not understand its workings all that much. No matter how clever we are, if we can’t turn off our mind, we are not in control of it. Maybe we should call in an engineer or read some manuals?

Tosotsu built three barriers and made the monks pass through them. The first barrier is studying Zen. In studying Zen the aim is to see one’s own true nature. Now where is your true nature?

Secondly, when one realizes his own true nature he will be free from birth and death. Now when you shut the light from your eyes and become a corpse, how can you free yourself?

Thirdly, if you free yourself from birth and death, you should know where you are. Now your body separates into the four elements. Where are you?

Mumon’s comment: Whoever can pass these three barriers will be a master wherever he stands. Whatever happens about him he will turn into Zen. Otherwise he will be living on poor food and not even enough of that to satisfy himself.

When Buddha was in Grdhrakuta mountain he turned a flower in his fingers and held it before his listeners. Every one was silent. Only Maha-Kashapa smiled at this revelation, although he tried to control the lines of his face.

Buddha said: “I have the eye of the true teaching, the heart of Nirvana, the true aspect of non-form, and the ineffable stride of Dharma. It is not expressed by words, but especially transmitted beyond teaching. This teaching I have given to Maha-Kashapa.”

Mumon’s comment: Golden-faced Gautama thought he could cheat anyone. He made the good listeners as bad, and sold dog meat under the sign of mutton. And he himself thought it was wonderful. What if all the audience had laughed together? How could he have transmitted the teaching? And again, if Maha-Kashapa had not smiled, how could he have transmitted the teaching? If he says that realization can be transmitted, he is like the city slicker that cheats the country dub, and if he says it cannot be transmitted, why does he approve of Maha-Kashapa?